Rebecca Pick, the Glasgow-based entrepreneur who was recently named by Scottish Development International as one of the most influential women in technology, has launched her first products; a range of lone worker security technologies.

Twenty-three year-old Pick, winner of the 2015 Santander Universities Entrepreneurship Award for best undergraduate business in the UK, founded Pick Protection while still a student at Strathclyde University. Since then she has attracted almost £1m in funding which has allowed her to develop a range of security products for lone workers, including a monitored attack alarm, ready for market.

Pick Protection has grown to a team of nine with 60 years’ collective experience in the security industry and strong technology credentials. The company has the backing of Unipart Security, whose alarm receiving centre will monitor Pick Protection’s alarm devices.

Around eight million people in the UK currently work either in isolation or without direct supervision, and statistics suggest a lone worker is attacked either physically or verbally every nine minutes. Pick Protection’s range of lone worker solutions includes a wearable alarm that is monitored by a BS8484 accredited alarm receiving centre where, upon activation, highly trained operators listen in and access the situation. Once they have verified the emergency they will send the Police as a level 1 response to the user’s location and emergency contacts will be alerted.

Pick said: “Growing from the first seed of an idea to a promising young tech company has been a thrilling journey for me and I am delighted to be able to launch our first products. I believe that everyone should feel safe at work, and this safety should be accessible, affordable and reliable. The inspiration behind Pick Protection may not have been work-related – my neighbour at university was attacked and nobody came to help – but after a lot of market research, we have decided to focus the business on lone worker protection.

“The number of lone workers in the UK is growing all the time, yet only around six per cent of them currently have protection through monitored safety alarms. However, more and more employers are waking up to the fact that they have a duty of care to ensure the safety of their lone workers. This means there is a huge potential market out there. I believe Pick Protection can be the next high growth tech business to come out of Scotland.”

Pick Protection’s monitored devices will be monitored by Unipart Security’s UK-based NSI Gold Category II Monitored Alarm Receiving Centre in Oxford. Unipart chairman and group chief executive, John Neill, said: “We are delighted to be able to support and invest in a young start-up company led by Rebecca. She is exactly the kind of energetic entrepreneur that our country needs to help us succeed in the fast changing world of technology. It’s a great opportunity for us to help a young person build a business and for our Group to further develop our experience in growing and nurturing start-up technology businesses.”